Over And Back: Stories About Nba History

We look at key on-the-court battles between the warring NBA and ABA in the latest episode in Over and Back’s Basketball Mysteries of the 1970s with Reinis Lacis (@LamarMatic), host of The Handle podcast. Known for many legal battles off the court, the ABA and NBA battled often on the court, with two interleague all-star games and dozens of exhibition games throughout the 1970s. We discuss the NBA’s domination of the early games, how the ABA later caught up, how the games were promoted and publicized, different viewpoints on how intense the games really were, the first “Super Bowl of Basketball" between the NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks and the ABA champion Utah Stars, the Indiana Pacers’ puzzling poor record in exhibition games, an incredible free-throw dunk by Julius Erving that almost no one has seen, Erving playing for the Hawks vs. ABA teams, a game with a combined 119 free throw attempts, a 1975 champion vs. champion matchup between the Colonels and Warriors, a duel between Rick Barry (49 points) and